RE: [ga] Reasonable Opportunity for Comment

["Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law" <froomkin@law.miami.edu>]

Will that Board discussion and vote be public or secret?

On Thu, 1 Mar 2001, Gomes, Chuck wrote:

> Bret,
> 
> Please note that the VeriSign contracts are only a discussion item in
> Melbourne.  The Board is not anticipating taking action on them until April
> 1st.
> 
> Chuck
> 
>  -----Original Message-----
> From: 	Bret Fausett [mailto:baf@fausett.com] 
> Sent:	Thursday, March 01, 2001 2:14 PM
> To:	council@dnso.org
> Cc:	ga@dnso.org; touton@icann.org
> Subject:	[ga] Reasonable Opportunity for Comment
> 
> To Members of the Names Council:
> 
> With less than two weeks until the meeting in Melbourne, the ICANN community
> now has three important sets of documents, possibly four, to review and
> comment upon: the new TLD contracts (each with 25 unique appendices, many of
> which are not yet posted); the discussion paper on the controversial
> multilingual domain names; and now, the radical restructuring of the
> agreements with Verisign (formerly NSI). The Agenda circulated on the ICANN
> Announce list today also mentions that the Board will consider the "Final
> report of the Ad Hoc Group on Numbering and Addressing," which, to the best
> of my knowledge, has not been posted anywhere, in either "draft" or "final"
> form.
> 
> Under Article III, Section (3)(b)(ii) of the ICANN Bylaws, any new policy
> that will "substantially affect the operation of the Internet or third
> parties" must follow a special process that allows a "reasonable
> opportunity" for public comment. The public comment period must allow not
> only a reasonable opportunity to post comments, but also a reasonable
> opportunity to "see the comments of others, and to reply to those comments."
> I believe that each of these topics is one which will "substantially affect"
> the operation of the Internet and falls within these "reasonable
> opportunity" provisions of the Bylaws.
> 
> If ICANN had posted just one of these three important documents on less than
> 30 days notice, I could understand how two weeks might be viewed as a
> "reasonable opportunity" for public comment. Taken in the aggregate,
> however, it is unreasonable, and in violation of the Bylaws, to expect
> meaningful comment on all three, possibly four, of these important items.
> The restructuring of the Verisign delegations, by itself, requires more than
> two weeks of consultation.
> 
> To remedy this situation, I ask the Names Council to forward a request to
> the Board and Staff asking that it promptly select *one* of these four items
> (other than the Verisign contracts) for action in Melbourne and defer the
> rest of the items for action (though not public discussion) until the
> Stockholm meeting or one of the special monthly telephonic meetings of the
> Board. With limited time for review, consultation, and comment prior to the
> Melbourne meeting, such a clarification will allow the Internet community to
> focus its attention on the most important item. Anything less will not
> afford the community the "reasonable opportunity" for public comment
> guaranteed under Article III of the Bylaws. It may also be appropriate, if
> not required under the Bylas, to refer all of these items to the DNSO for
> review.
> 
> Thank you for considering this request.
> 
> Very truly yours,
> 
> Bret A. Fausett
> 
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